#but i hope for him he didn't read thousands of books in the english translation cause that'd be lame

[ananke-xiii]

ghostfacers effect yes but let's not forget that uriel would never speak in english with cas. lucifer and cas scene in s5? also in enochian. michael and cas in s15? same. you'll never take this hc away from me.

[no-passaran]

A newspaper in my country has interviewed Siddharth Kara, one of the experts on what's going on in the cobalt mines in Congo. I think it's very well explained and a must-read to get an overview of this huge human rights violation that is going on. So here I translate it to English, hoping it will reach more people.

Siddharth Kara: "Every time we buy a new mobile phone, we put our foot around the neck of a child in the Congo"

Interview with the author of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

"The poorest people in the world, including tens of thousands of children, dig the earth in toxic and very dangerous conditions to find cobalt," says journalist and writer Siddharth Kara (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, 1974). The rechargeable batteries of our mobile phones, tablets, laptops or electric vehicles need this mineral that thousands of children, men, women and elderly people extract from the Congolese mines in inhumane conditions. Kara went there because he had specialized in research on slavery, and in Congo he found a modernized form of slavery. "Time has passed, but the colonial mentality has not," he explains. Everything he saw there and what was explained to him is recounted in Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives (a book that does not have a translation into Catalan, but which has now been translated into Spanish, by Capitán Swing). The photographs and videos illustrating this interview were taken by himself.

—Was it difficult to write this book? —Yes. Firstly, because of the specific difficulty of this area of the Congo: very dangerous, very militarized. There are armed militias. And for the local people there it is dangerous to talk to foreigners, because it can bring them consequences. It was difficult to get there, and then it was difficult to build trust with the people who worked there. I only managed it thanks to this trust, which we achieved little by little, until we were sure that we could do the research with guarantees and ethically.

—What drove you to the Congo cobalt mines? —I had been doing research on slavery since 2000. Around 2016, some African colleagues contacted me and said: “Siddharth, something terrible is happening in the cobalt mines of the Congo, maybe you should go there”. I had no idea what cobalt was. I thought it was a color used for painting. I didn't know it was used for rechargeable batteries. It took me a couple of years to grasp its importance. Then I started making contacts to travel there, and in the summer of 2018 I went there.

—And what did you find there? —The suffering and degradation I saw there were so intense that I decided to return there often to write a book. Hundreds of thousands of the world's poorest people, including tens of thousands of children, dig the earth in toxic and very dangerous conditions to find cobalt and put it into circulation, in a distribution chain that goes to the rechargeable devices and cars that people like you and me use every day. It was a human apocalypse, a total invasion of human rights and the dignity of the Congolese people.

—Could you describe what a mine like this is like, physically? How should we imagine it? —Those who are at the top of the economic chain of cobalt exploitation like to distort the truth, and use the term "artisanal mine". This way, they evoke a kind of picturesque activity, but on the ground it is a dangerous and degrading job. A mine of this kind is a mass of tunnels, pits and trenches filled with thousands of people who dig with shovels, pieces of metal or directly with their bare hands. They fill a sack with earth, stone and mud. Some children rinse it in toxic pools to separate the mud from the cobalt stones, which a whole family pours into another sack. It might take twelve hours to fill a forty-kilo sack or two. For each sack they get paid a few euros, very few, and that's how they live every day. They survive.

This video was filmed by Siddharth Kara: [you can watch the video in the interview link, freely available without any paywall, here]

—Is there any rational organization in these mines? Is there someone who decides who does what to optimize work? —Well, there is a whole gear designed so that the poor and the children of the Congo produce hundreds of thousands of tons of cobalt every year. There, work is usually divided by age and gender. Digging tunnels, which requires a lot of strength, is usually done by young men and teenagers. The digging of small pits and trenches that can be less meters deep is done by women and smaller children. Rinsing this toxic cobalt is usually done by the children. The merchant system to exploit these families and sell the cobalt they produce to the formal industrial mines is very well set up.

—What else do these people at the top of the chain invent? —Another fiction they invent is that there is a difference between industrial and artisanal mining, and that they only buy from the industrial one, where there is no child labor. Not true: all cobalt is mined by children. All the cobalt that the children and peasants extract goes straight to industrial mining. In addition, there is no way to separate what comes from a bulldozer and what comes from a child, once it all pours into the same place in the facility that does the industrial processing before this cobalt is sent out of the Congo.

—You explain that the situation is particularly abusive for women. —Yes. It is a lawless land, and violence is the norm. Women and girls always bear the brunt: they are victims of physical and sexual violence, and almost no one talks about it. It is a major tragedy: they are victims of sexual assaults that are committed in the mines themselves, while they collect the cobalt that we have in our mobile phones.

—You refer to all of this as a new episode of slavery. It is not the first time that the Congo has a decisive material for Western economic development. It happened with uranium for nuclear bombs, for example. History repeats itself. —Exactly. It is important for people to understand that we are not witnessing an isolated case, but the latest episode in a long, very long, history of looting of the Congo, a very resource-rich country, dating back to the colonial period. The first automobile revolution required rubber for tires. The Congo had one of the largest rubber tree rainforests in the world. King Leopold [of Belgium] deployed a mercenary army of criminals and terrorists to enslave the population and make them work to get it. This inspired Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. The Congo also has abundant reserves of gold, diamonds, nickel, lithium and other metals and minerals that make components for electronic devices…

—These mercenaries deployed by King Leopold, are they still there today, in one way or another? —Yes. On the ground there are militias, or the army, or private security forces that the mining companies hire and that, sometimes, in addition to monitoring, do the work of recruiting children. Under the threat of an occupation, they force an entire town to dig. It's atrocious: we live in an age of supposed moral progress, where everyone shares the same human rights, and yet our global economic order has its knee on the necks of the children and the poor of the Congo, with this huge demand for cobalt that has to fuel the rechargeable economy.

—Has no Western country or international body done anything to stop it? —No. No western country, no government, no big business has lifted a finger to address this tragedy. They talk about maintaining human rights standards in their supply chains, they talk about environmental sustainability, but it's only talk. That is why it is very important that journalists and researchers set foot on the land of the Congo and listen to what the Congolese have to say: that no one protects their rights or their dignity, that they are erasing the environment, that mining it is not done in a sustainable way and the whole countryside is polluted and destroyed by the mining operations. It is enough to walk ten minutes around a mine to see it.

—Does the same happen in all mines? Large Western companies that use cobalt often claim that theirs comes from artisanal mines that meet standards. —Have they gone there? There is no decent mine in the Congo. It does not exist. I'll be happy to take any CEO of any tech company to their mines, where their cobalt comes from. We'll stand there, watching them extract it, and take a selfie with it. Everyone will realize that what is seen behind us is not decent. You will see destruction, millions of trees felled, installations that emit toxic gases that fall on the surrounding towns, on the children, on the animals, on the food. There is no decent mine in the Congo. And they know it. But who will believe the voice of a Congolese if they can drown it out with proclamations of human rights while they continue to make money without measure?

—Can you explain the role China plays in all of this? You say that it controls the supply chain. —Yes. China controls about 70% of mining production in the Congo. Why do we accept China saying its mines are decent, if they don't even protect the human rights of their own people? Why do we accept a technology company or a car manufacturer saying, "My Chinese partners say they protect human rights there, and that's enough for me"? Why do we accept it?

—Why do you say that a certain transition to green energy is absolute hypocrisy? —When the calls in favor of this transition consist of proposing to consumers that they buy electric vehicles instead of gasoline cars, this is hypocrisy. Because the cobalt and other elements that are used for the batteries of these cars are extracted using methods that are catastrophic for the environment. While in one part of the world we say we want to save the environment and leave a greener planet to our children, in another we are destroying both the planet and the future of their children. How can you save only part of the planet, turning the rest into a toxic dump? How can we give a green planet only to our children, while we let other people's children die? This is hypocritical.

—It is a reflection of the domination that the global north maintains over the south. —We have never given Congo the opportunity to benefit from its own resources. It is a colonial mentality: time has passed, but the colonial mentality has not. It is the same type of colonial plunder from a century and a half ago. It is colonial to say: "Look, we need this, they have it, we take it from them in any way and, when we no longer need it, we leave a catastrophe behind us". There are companies that, recently, have started to pretend that they are becoming aware of this and promised that they would try to use batteries that did not have cobalt, but in reality they said: "Well, we've been caught, we'll look for another mechanism". And they do nothing to solve the catastrophe. Even if we no longer needed cobalt tomorrow, we would have to repair the destruction we have caused these past fifteen years.

—It's the big companies who should be required to react, but what do you think a Western consumer who has gotten upset reading you could do? —The first step to progress in the conquest of human rights is always to make injustice known. Contribute to make everyone knows. Most people are good and, in their hearts, want no part of injustice. It is the few who move based on avarice and greed who pollute the rest of humanity. Outreach and awareness is the first step because it will inevitably activate a lot of people. Change always starts like this. In the case of cobalt, the second step is to think about our consumption habits. Every twelve months, the technology company I bought my phone from offers me a new one. Do I really need it? Every time we buy a new mobile phone, we put our foot on the neck of a child in the Congo. Better think twice, then.

[aro-ace-christian]

Ok, so, I'm curious: what are your views on Christianity and the LGBTQ+ community's relationship, per se, and like what is it like being part of both (for you)? I'm aroace as well, and I'm struggling with my faith a lot currently but was raised Christian. I'm just really curious as to what your views are on everything I guess, as I've never met another aroace, or LGBTQ+ member in general, who also considers themselves a Christian. 💜

Honestly, I've noticed that the God I serve, the One I have a relationship with cannot be the same that others serve. Because my God is all about love. And that is abundant in scripture.

I spent a lot of time in prayer and research when I was figuring myself out. A great site that helped me reconcile how I've felt about myself lining up with Christianity is Hope Remains. It goes through scripture that people quote against the LGBTQIA+ community and shows translations that are much closer to the original Hebrew and Greek.

Because, the thing is, there are two major problems with how people view the Bible in today's world:

1) They don't look at context.

People tend to look at one verse only. They don't look at the verses or even story around that verse.

A lot of time things are said to a specific people (Levitcus was for the Hebrews), in a specific time (Old Testiment laws were overwritten by Christ's death), or due to a specific circumstance.

2) People don't realize that the different translations in English aren't always exactly accurate.

There are words, phrases, and concepts that get lost when translated from language to language, from time period to time period, and from place to place.

If you've ever taken a foreign language you know this to be true. Even a simple children's book can have these issues. Compare that to thousands of years of translating scripture. That's why it's so important to go back to the original Hebrew and Greek.

For being AroAce specifically, I love to quote 1 Corinthians 7 to people. Paul never married. He says he wish others could be like him and stay single.

"I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.  But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."

But as I stated above, even Paul's thoughts in scripture are all about context. He's speaking to the church in Corinth. He didn't know we'd be reading it 2000 years later. But even with that context, I find comfort there.

So TLDR: There are some great resources out there. But nothing beats prayer and research. I suggest digging into scripture and translations yourself and then through prayer deciding what it is you believe for yourself.

I hope that helps!

[fabien-euskadi]

Book asks: #3, #8, #15 and #20. Hope you're well my dear friend!

3.what is your favourite genre?

Hum… probably, we could create a genre called XIX Century romance, even if some works can be included in this category without having been written strictly during the XIX Century. That includes not only the so-called Victorian Age Literature (1837-1901), but also all the national expressions of Romanticism and Realism.

If I was only allowed to read books from this era for the rest of my life, I would be extremely happy.

And I have a soft spot for Realism. Specially, Eça de Queiroz.

8.what is the first book you remember reading yourself?

That was so long ago that I cannot remember at all. But I remember that, before sleeping, my mother used to read me Henrique Galvão's "Kurika: romance of the wild animals".

The first book I remember reading from the first to the last page was an old History of Portugal (and A LOT could be said about a school book from the period of Dictatorship). Suddenly, I had memorized all the Kings of Portugal between 1143 and 1910. And yes, I can still recite the complete list - most people, can't. Perhaps, it's not surprising that I ended up graduating in History.

15.Recommend and review a book. This one is not translated to English, but I still find it absolutely delightfull to read. I am talking about Valter Hugo Mãe's "O Filho de Mil Homens" ("The Son of a Thousand Men"). It's wonderful.

This is the story of a fishermen that, once he reached 40, he realized he didn't have a son, despite wanting it badly, desperately. He had all the love in the world to give to his son - he just didn't have a son. So, if he had that love inside himself, his son ought to exist somewhere, it had to be lost - and so, he started to ask people if they had seen his son. And, one day, he finds an orphan boy - and asks him to be his son. Then, he asks for a girlfriend, and the Universe could not deny him that.

… but the most amazing is that the book is a collection of of connected narratives that show us not only the perspective of the fisherman (and his son), but also of many other fascinating characters, like the girl, the midget-woman, the gay man, the gay man's mother, the old man and many others. And love and solitude are, essentially, the cement that connects all these stories.

It's an amazing story about a single concept: for love to happen all you have to do is to love.

20.what are things you look for in a book?

I suppose I will look for some enjoyment, some amazement, some personal enrichment… even some sleep. I want to be "forced" to think, to understand, to discover, to dream.

Thank you very much, my friend - I hope you are, at least, as well as I am now. All despite my poor sleep. :)

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Angel's Game. By Carlos Ruiz Zafón (trans. Lucia Graves). Anchor Books, 2009.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: historical fiction, Gothic fiction

Series: Cemetery of Forgotten Books #2

Summary: In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed — a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: child abuse, gun violence, disturbing imagery, self harm, suicide, child death, blood

OVERVIEW: I absolutely loved Shadow of the Wind and have been meaning to make my way through the rest of Zafón's bibliography. The Angel's Game is a companion of sorts, set in the same universe (though it's not a direct sequel). Thus, I had high hopes. While I did like a lot about this book, I wasn't quite as hooked as I was for Shadow; the writing is still eerie and atmospheric, but the plot less satisfying. Thus, I can only give this 3.5 stars.

WRITING: Zafón's prose is incredibly atmospheric, painting a picture of early 20th century Barcelona that feels both timeless and trapped in the past. I loved the descriptions of the buildings, the streets, and the mists that hang over everything, and Zafón excels at establishing mood.

I do think, however, that the pacing of this book tended to be a bit wonky and there were some sentence-level quirks that irritated me. Zafón's chapters are short which means that scenes fly by pretty fast; but also, I felt like there were moments when time moved by too quickly and other areas where the scene was dragged out. I also noticed that a lot of the sentences began with "I," making chunks of the book feel repetitive. Granted, I read the English translation of this book, so it may read differently in the original Spanish.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows David Martín, a struggling writer in early 20th century Barcelona who is offered the deal of a lifetime from a mysterious foreign publusher: write a book on the subject of the publisher's choosing, making amends when directed, and be paid one hundred thousand francs. Martín agrees and begins writing while holed up in his dark, drafty old house, and soon, he discovers that the deal he has accepted is tied to the previous owners of his abode.

I love the way Zafón unsettles the reader with this plot. Things get weirder and weirder until they fall apart completely, and the Gothic tones of the story are delicious. I loved watching Martín unravel the mystery of the house and I was disturbed by the mysterious deaths that seemed to keep happening; it was enough to keep me interested and charging through until the end.

I do think, however, that the story ended in something of a mess. It didn't exactly tie together in a way I found satisfying, so I ended the book feeling a little hollow. Perhaps the reason for this is because a lot of the emotional drive of the plot hinges on Martín's feelings for a woman named Cristina - feelings that felt shallow and under-developed. If we were shown why Martín is so devoted and obsessed with her rather than told, I think I might have felt differently, but as it stands, it was hard to connect with the drama of the story because I felt held at arm's length.

TL;DR: The Angel's Game is moody, atmospheric, and weird, but doesn't quite live up to the brilliance of its predecessor.

CHARACTERS: Martín, our protagonist and narrator, is a little hard to connext to, in part because despite being stuck in his head, I didn't feel like he was really obsessed or emotional about the people in his life. The strongest friendship he seemed to have was with his assistant Isabella, which was itself very good. We see the two poking fun at each other and scheming and fighting, so their connection felt the most real and grounded.

Supporting characters such as Sempere the bookseller and Vidal the rich benefactor were well-developed and portrayed as having genuine affection for Martín. They also interact with Martín quite a bit, but they also disappeared for long stretches at a time, so it was difficult for me to see them as consistent presences in Martín's life.

Corelli, the foreign publisher, was adequately mysterious without being overtly sinister or threatening. I liked that I couldn't guess as to whether or not he could be trusted, and as Martín becomes more and more obsessed, it's clear that Corelli was entangled in the drama in some unspecified way. I also appreciated that he wasn't an off-page villain lurking in the background; he arranges to meet Martín periodically, and I liked seeing his face as opposed to him being faceless and vague.

Perhaps the least developed character, in my opinion, was Cristina. Without giving any plot details away, I will say that Martín's love for Cristina is supposed to give the story some emotional thrust. However, I never quite understood why Martín was in love with her; I felt like I was told about his feelings but never really felt like the two had a connection. As a result, when things start to fall apart, I'm less invested in Cristina's fate than I think I could have been.

[dear-mrs-otome]

Silvio Ricci - Main Story - Chp 04 Avatar Challenge (Premium)

Standard Disclaimer: I do this for fun. I don’t, and never would, claim to be proficient at JP. There will be mistakes herein. There will be dialogue I choose to smooth out or change, because it feels choppy just straight translating. There will be the occasional snarky aside and irreverence and just plain summarizing. If you’re looking for 100% pure accuracy, without commentary or localizing, this is not for you. If you don’t mind that…then proceed, and I hope you enjoy! And please, support your local localizer (they make this stuff look easy) and Cybird by playing the games and routes when they come to English.

~~~~~~~~

Having enjoyed an evening of drinks and sweets on Silvio, and coming to the decision that he might not be such a terrible person, Emma's lost the will to follow through with her diabolical scheme to make him hate her.

Still though, she doesn't have any choice.

In his office earlier when Sariel had first proposed the idea of becoming a villainess, Rio had blushed, titillated by the idea.

Sariel had brushed it off, and gone on to explain what she should do. He'd told her that she didn't have to worry about being a well-mannered lady around Silvio - there are limits to how bad her behavior can be, obviously, given his state as a foreign prince. But she can still make herself unpleasant enough on a personal level without wrecking diplomatic relations.

He promises that he and Rio can smooth over any major issues, so feel free to act as wicked as she wants. He'll even give her tips how to do so.

~~~~~~

When she and Silvio leave the tavern, it's late enough for him to comment on how long they've been out.

The sun has set and the moon risen, and the cool night air is comfortable given how warm the alcohol has made her.

But she mentally slaps herself out of complacency, and reminds herself she has to be the Bad Girl! The fate of her country is resting on getting herself out of this hostess role.

She stops walking and Silvio notices, turning to look back at her. "What is it?"

"I'm too drunk to walk," she fibs, to his surprise. "I-I can't make it back to the castle unless you carry me."

She's apologizing to Silvio in her head, as she recalls Sariel's first lesson in Bad Girl 101: always be unreasonably self-centered. Sariel had noted how much Emma always loathed making any sort of selfish request, but he advised her to throw all those reservations out the window where Silvio was concerned. Make herself as much of a hassle as possible.

Still silently making excuses, she staggers over like a drunk person might and clings to Silvio's arm, leaning against him and mimicking the wicked lady in a book she'd read.

What she'd expected was that she'd be flung off him immediately, for the vitriol to fly as he chewed her out. But what she gets instead is a baffling, heavy silence.

"Prince Silvio?" she says, wonder if perhaps he's so enraged he can't even speak. Hesitantly, she lifts her head to look up at him…only to find he's facing away, looking in the other direction entirely.

She's puzzled, and it's too dark to see his face clearly, but she doesn't get the impression he's angry.

"....Let go," he finally says.

"I-I don't want to. I'm drunk," she protests.

He scowls and points out that she didn't get nearly this drunk last time, before he lets out a curse. "Ahhh, damn it…what a pain in the ass."

She lets out a little cry as, despite his swearing, Silvio easily hefts her up into his arms. Not a chivalric bridal carry or anything though, this is more the rough way you'd carry a piece of luggage…and she's thinking how if she actually was drunk this would be making it a thousand times worse.

That's not the point though - she really hadn't thought he'd actually pick her up. It's her that's confused and thrown off kilter now.

She protests that she doesn't want to be carried in such a crude way, but Silvio only tells her not to complain - AND not to wiggle about. "You do anything even remotely strange and I'm dumping you on the ground," he warns.

She doesn't want that, obviously, and her role demands the same - so she clings to him, and can feel a violent tremor ripple through him to her confusion.

"I told you not to move."

His voice is so feeble, it's almost impossible to imagine it came from The Tyrant.

Frankly, none of his reactions these past few minutes had been what she'd expected of him at all…and if she looks closely, she can spy that his ears seem bright red.

It can't seriously be that he's embarrassed…can it???

Silvio heaves her into a carriage parked nearby, and when she finally gets herself upright on the bench she finds he's seated himself as far as humanly possible from her, silent.

"I'd like some water," she says to him.

"I'm royalty of another country, aren't I?" Silvio reminds her…but despite his objections, he reluctantly climbs out of the carriage and a short time later he really does return with a cup of water.

It hurts her even more in moments when he's strangely kind like this…but she's got to keep up her act. And when she thanks him and reaches out to take it, she purposefully brushes Silvio's fingers with her hand.

He startles, his big hand trembling and sloshing water out the cup.

Sure she's figured it out now, she confronts him. "Prince Silvio…are you shy?"

He denies it, but she points out how red his face is.

"I'm drunk," he explains, trying to wave it away.

"I see...then you won't mind if I lean on you, right?" she asks slyly.

He splutters at her to stop that, threatening to throw her from the carriage. He takes a seat and pushes the cup of water at her, his red face stubbornly turned away to stare out the window. "...I just don't feel comfortable with women touching me."

"Not comfortable?" she echoed.

He says, especially her - she freaks him out more than other women.

She mulls that over a bit, taken aback slightly by how he makes it sound less like he gets embarrassed around women and more as if he genuinely dislikes them. Not to mention how unreasonable it is for him to forbid anyone touching him when he seems to think it's fine for HIM to do the touching.

"Even though you say it makes you uncomfortable, weren't you still the one who asked me to sleep with you??" she points out.

"It's fine if I'm the one doing the touching."

"That's absurd," she scoffs.

He says that she can't be all that drunk, if she's talking to him all sassy like that, and she hastily assures him she's definitely absolutely sloshed. Reminding herself she's gotta act the part.

She drinks the water and then sits down next to Silvio, feeling emboldened.

"You…" he begins in warning.

"I'm drunk and I need a pillow," she tells him, to his immediate shock. She's fully prepared to use his dislike of women and being touched to make him hate her, and she casts aside any sense of shame and leans on his shoulder.

He immediately freezes up again, seemingly at so much of a loss that he can't even manage to hurl his usual vitriol at her. Just speechless. And she's struck again by how much of a surprise it is that he's got a weakness like this.

Her conscience finally gets the better of her, and feeling guilty she tries to sit up - only to have Silvio's arms circle her waist and keep her from moving.

"You had a lot of nerve earlier, woman," he states. Startling her when he hugs her to him fiercely, the exotic scent of his cologne enveloping her. Her attempt to jump back foiled when his hand comes up behind her head and presses it to his chest.

Why is this okay, but her touching him isn't?? she flails to herself.

"I thought I'd gone too far the other day, but if you're making the first move then I guess I don't have to hold back, do I?" he asks.

"Sorry, I'm sorry…let go of me!" she begs him.

He grins and says he's just getting started with this, and she's realizing that his face isn't red at all…and that he might have just turned the tables on her.

"Or is it that you're pretending like you're not used to men deliberately?" he presses.

She flails that she's not a hussy or something, she really isn't used to this, and he smirks and says he was under the impression she was sleeping with the Rhodolite princes.

Aghast, she denies that vehemently.

His grip on her loosens, and he doesn't try to stop her when she puts distance between them.

"Then don't do something you're not used to doing, idiot," Silvio chides her, reaching over and mussing up her hair as if to irritate her.

She reaches out herself, to take her revenge on him, and he grabs her hand. Leading to a back and forth tussle for supremacy in the carriage the ride back.

It's strange, she thinks. She just wanted to be hated by him - she must be crazy to be thinking that she's actually having a lot of fun right now.

~~~~~~~~

<< Chapter 04 | Chapter 05 >>

[homuraeyes]

Someone read Kreutzer Sonata ! I read it in the original language so it's nice to see that the translation in English is also good

This book is like a reflection of Tolstoy, he abused his wife, refused to do contraceptions while having sex with his wife which led her to have like 10+ kids, she had to raise them, take care of them, feed them while HELPING HIM write and rewrite his works, she was like a complete slave in his house, I have a lot of pity for this woman

What he says about slavery is also really ironic and shocking, he owned lots of Ukrainian slaves in his household and exploited their inability to refuse to work for him just like he's saying it in his book, I don't know if people knew it yet that he was a slave owner when he wrote it so I don't know the real purpose of writing it, maybe to look more deeper than readers

Many many people consider him a misogynist with misogynistic fantasies, which is true, I cannot believe that a man that exploited his wife so much can have any respect towards women, he's a very cruel man and while reading his book we are entering his perspective on things, as a perverted cheating young man, as a cold husband and later as an indifferent abusive father

While reading this book my opinion on the killer has changed lots of times, firstly I was disgusted by him, but later had sympathy (!) for him, I even judged his wife, the poor woman who was just like Tolstoy wife, for being too cold and creating too much conflicts, woman who was a victim all along

While approaching the end I was hoping that he will actually not kill her when she finally could have some happiness after being an asleep breeding machine, but he did, in a very violent way, he didn't even kill the man with who she cheated (we are not even sure if she did) on him because he was afraid that people will mock him for his attire, while attacking his wife and mother of his children he was thinking about such a silly thing

And when she's dead he's no longer angry, he's sad because as you said he realizes that his wife is actually a human and not a thing, which just shows once again that he only considered her as his property, his and only his

He hated when he no longer could use her body to create children who helped them to not leash out all of the hatred they had for one another, her body was his, and when she started to feel more alive and play music and going out he hated it because he could control her less, he hated when other men looked at her as a woman and were falling in love with her even though he never loved her in the first place, because she was only a slave, a thing, to keep in his own house

I feel like this book is a must read for every women who wants to marry a men, create a family with him and live a happy live, because this book is a brutal reality of thousands, millions of families all over the world, this is what your marriage can lead to, an absolutely horrific life, just read it, be aware and think if you really are ready to all of this because the man you met could ended up being just like the killer in this book, because he's not a rare psychopath that you'll find in psychiatric wards but an average abusive husband of women you already know

This book is very personal to me because the killer is just like my dad, a complete copy of him except he never killed my mother, their fights, their thoughts are just like those pictured in the book, the wife becoming "savage", "hysterical" is just like my mom, kids somewhere crying in the house while two are arguing are just like me

When I read the last chapter I felt like the character didn't kill his wife but my mother, her ending as a woman living with an aggressive man, I cried a lot, the book which was supposed to be a perspective of a misogynistic man in marriage became a book about my family

My teacher told me that this book is too brutal for my age but I do not agree with her, this is the exact age you should read it, when you start fantasizing about marriage and men in general, because the words of author and his thoughts are thoughts of many many men about women in this world, listen to misogynists when they talk, this is not a satire this is the reality

thanks to andrea dworkin i read "the kreutzer sonata". and you know what. i liked it. though i do not agree with most of what main character's saying, some takes are surprisingly good. for example:

Take all poetry, all pictures and sculpture, beginning with love poems and the nude Venuses and Phrynes, and you will see that woman is an instrument of enjoyment... And note the devil's cunning: if they are here for enjoyment and pleasure, let it be known that it is pleasure and that woman is a sweet morsel. But no, first the knights-errant declare that they worship women (worship her, and yet regard her as an instrument of enjoyment), and now people assure us that they respect women...

They do all that, but their outlook on her remains the same. She is a means of enjoyment. Her body is a means of enjoyment. And she knows this. It is just as it is with slavery. Slavery, you know, is nothing else than the exploitation by some of the unwilling labor of many. Therefore to get rid of slavery it is necessary that people should not wish to profit by the forced labor of others and should consider it a sin and a shame. But they go and abolish the external form of slavery and arrange so that one can no longer buy and sell slaves, and they imagine and assure themselves that slavery no longer exists, and do not see or wish to see that it does, because people still want and consider it good and right to exploit the labor of others. 

i swear reading this shit is like arguing with author himself. and ending chapter OH MY GOD THE ENDING CHAPTER GOT ME CRYING. just look at this:

I looked at the children and at her bruised and disfigured face, and for the first I forgot myself, my rights, my pride, and for the first time saw a human being in her. And so insignificant did all that had offended me, all my jealousy, appear, and so important what I had done, that I wished to fall with my face to her hand, and say: "Forgive me," but dared not do so.

the very fact that he "saw a human being in her" only when she was on her deathbed IS what made me sobbing.